Chapter 1 Summary

• We are introduced to Mr Utterson (a lawyer) and Mr Enfield (a ‘man about town’)

who are distant relations and close friends.

• Walking through the streets of London, Enfield tells a story of a shocking scene
he had witnessed.

• A young girl collided with a man in the street who then ‘trampled calmly’ over
her body, leaving her hurt and screaming.

• Enfield chased the man, insisting that he pay

compensation to the girl.

• The man pays partly in cash and partly with a cheque

signed with a name that Enfield ‘can’t mention’
(Dr Jekyll).

• The man is named as Mr Hyde.

Character Mr Hyde

Think! How does Stevenson quickly present Hyde as

different from the rest of society in Chapter 1?

This suggests being crushed by animals, The child’s innocence contrasts

cattle or horses or a crowd of people. with the violence of the man’s
This reinforces the man’s lack of humanity. actions; ‘calmly’ suggests his
lack of conscience.

…the man trampled calmly over The description of leaving a

the child’s body and left her child ‘screaming’ with pain
‘on the ground’ is designed
screaming on the ground. to intensify our sense of the
man’s lack of compassion.

DOIT!

Find and explain three more quotations or other references in Chapter 1 where
Stevenson establishes Hyde’s difference.
 DOIT!

Answers
• Hyde is described as a ‘little man’ who was ‘stumping’, suggesting his
walk is stiff and angry.
• Hyde’s response to the crowd’s anger is ‘sneering coolness’, suggesting
contempt and detachment.
• Hyde created a ‘desire to kill him’ in even the most level-headed people
(the doctor).
• Hyde’s appearance has ‘something wrong…displeasing…downright
detestable…deformed’. The alliterative ‘d’ illustrates Enfield’s disgust.

BIG Hyde’s calm trampling of a child would be considered shocking and unacceptable by both
IDEA contemporary and Victorian readers – he is presented as being different from the very start.
His name is not revealed until almost the end of the chapter, increasing his mysteriousness.
Structure Structure diagram

Think! Does Stevenson structure the novel effectively?

This is where the central Climax
conflict is at its height. Lanyon’s narrative reveals
the transformation.

Poole and
DOIT! Utterson
find Hyde’s body.
Chapter 9,

n
tio
‘Dr Lanyon’s Jekyll retreats

ac
Narrative’, provides from society.

ng
the climax of the
i
is
Lanyon dies.
novel. Although
R
some elements Hyde disappears. Jekyll
becomes more sociable.
of the mystery
are solved, what Murder of Carew
information is still Resolution
missing at this Exposition We are shown the
Introduction to the mystery of Jekyll’s events from Jekyll’s
point of the novel? will and the mysterious Mr Hyde. viewpoint.
Quiz Character
1. Who is described as ‘pale and dwarfish’?
2. Which character has a ‘rugged countenance that was never lighted by
a smile’?
3. Why did Dr Lanyon and Dr Jekyll stop being friends?
4. How do we learn about Hyde in Chapters 1 and 2?

STRETCHIT!

In Chapters 1 and 2, how does Stevenson suggest that Jekyll might not be what he
seems on the surface?